Scaling Up Early Childhood Development in Zambia: Qualitative Assessment of Utility and Acceptability of Book

The project also involves the distribution of the Zambian Folktales Children's Book, which is targeted at increasing pre-grade reading comprehension and school readiness in rural Zambia. The book contains 22 Zambian folktale stories with culturally relevant illustrations and an annex designed to support the reader. The Zambian Folktales Children's Book was developed by Zambian psychology and ECD experts in collaboration with USAID. English, Tonga, and Nyanja copies of the book were distributed by SMAGs to all households with a child aged 9 and under within the book intervention zones in RTC-Z project health center catchment areas, and by health center staff in health center catchment areas not part of the RTC project. The book is intended for household use, with the aim of increasing caregiver-child interactions, stimulating pre-grade children, and ultimately improving children's cognitive development. The project is being implemented in Choma, Kalomo, and Pemba districts of Southern Province, and Nyimba district of Eastern Province. Within these districts, the project is being implemented in 10 health center catchment areas. In addition, the Zambian Folktales Children's Book was distributed in 5 additional non-SUpErCDZ HFCAs between March and August 2020. The project is being implemented in partnership with the Government of Zambia, which has developed guidelines related to the control and prevention of the spread of COVID-19. A process evaluation is being conducted to understand the best approaches to deliver the interventions at scale through the existing health systems and to understand how the COVID-19 epidemic and response are affecting the delivery and implementation of the interventions. A mixed methods approach for data collection using quantitative and qualitative data collection methods is being employed for the process evaluation. A second round of qualitative data collection was conducted between October and November 2020. The qualitative data collection involved in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with health center staff, SMAGs, and community women at SUpErCDZ sites and non-SUpErCDZ sites. The IDIs and FGDs were guided by semi-structured IDI guides and an FGD guide, which included overarching questions and suggested probes and follow-ups to elicit sufficient detail to answer each evaluation question. The guides were translated into the local languages of Tonga and Nyanja for use in the Southern and Eastern Provinces, respectively. The qualitative data collection aimed to address several study objectives and questions, including the degree to which the government-supported Zambian Folktales Children's Book impacts child development, the degree to which the interventions were implemented according to the project plan, and the perceived risk from COVID-19 in rural Zambia, adherence to Ministry of Health infection prevention guidelines, and effect on the implementation and attendance of community-based parenting groups. The qualitative data collection provided insight into the effects of COVID-19 on CBPG project implementation, as well as community perceptions and adherence to COVID-19 guidelines. The data also provided information on the perceptions of the Zambian Folktales Children's Book and cultural preferences for other children's books in rural Zambia, the barriers and facilitators of implementing the intervention at scale, and the degree to which the Zambian Folktales Children's Book was distributed according to plan. The project is being implemented in a challenging context, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the delivery and implementation of the interventions. However, the project is being implemented in partnership with the Government of Zambia, which has developed guidelines related to the control and prevention of the spread of COVID-19. The project aims to improve the cognitive development of children in rural Zambia through the distribution of the Zambian Folktales Children's Book and the implementation of a community-based parenting group intervention.